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I have an RH8 project that won't open today while it has opened every day for several months now. I deleted the .cpd file but no luck. What to do?
By the way, I searched this forum for "RH8 project won't open" and got 0(zero) results. Anyone know why?
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Hi there
Do any error messages appear? If so, what do they say?
Cheers... Rick
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Rh opens. On the starter page, it chokes on "Opening Project Callout Guide.xpj"
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So now I went to the saved backup zip file I created yester
day. I opened it and the project opened but there was abs
olutely nothing there. Here's a pic:
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Hello again
Okay, I re-read your post here and have a question.
You said:
So now I went to the saved backup zip file I created yesterday...
Apologies in advance if my question seems too basic here. But I know when you get rattled that little things get overlooked.
Did you by chance forget to unzip it first? If you just opened the XPJ file then things might not go so well.
Cheers... Rick
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Rick,
yes you were right. So, I opened the zip archive and extracted the xpj file. Do I need to extract everything???? I'll try that because again there was nothing there when I opened the extracted xpj file.
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Hi there
Indeed you do need to extract it all. At least I would think that's the easiest way to work.
Cheers... Rick
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Well, I extracted everything and tried to open xpj and it
didn't get beyond the starter page.
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Does Peter have any suggestions in his Opening Projects page on his website? Can you open any of your other projects or the sample projects?
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yes, I can open other projects with no problem.
The project seems to choke on the xpj file when it's trying to open and then
just hangs there.
Gloria
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Hi there
When you deleted the .CPD, where exactly did you find it?
Cheers... Rick
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Again, can you tell us exactly where the CPD is found?
Cheers... Rick
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here it is. isn't it always in this location? why would it be elsewhere?
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My reason for asking where the CPD is located is because it reveals exactly where your project is located. Yours appears to be okay, although if it were my own project, I'd be rearranging things by creating a folder off C:\ named Projects and storing each project inside a folder as a subfolder of the Projects folder.
The thing is, folks are free to store projects anywhere they wish. Many store the project on a LAN (Network Drive) and that leads to many of the issues you are reporting. Fortunately, for you, this isn't the case.
Cheers... Rick
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So any ideas about how to open my project? I've look at Peter's site under Opening Robohelp Projects, but I've read it over and over and I'm not sure I know what to do.
I did DELETE the cpd file at first; whereas Peter says to RENAME it. So even though I deleted it, it's back.
frustrated
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Deleting or renaming the .cpd is the same - it gets recreated anew each time it's missing. Have you applied all the RH8 patches before trying the "bad" project? Finally, your .xpj file may be damaged beyond repair - try following Peter's recommendations using the .hhp file.
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Rick,
Now I have 2 cpd files because I renamed the file. Is that normal?
frankly, I don't find Peter's directions about Using the HPP file very easy to use.
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Yes.
Nope, they aren't - but because your .xpj file is probably pooched (highly technical term), you probably have little choice unless you've got an older backup to try.
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okay I took the plunge and tried to open the hpp file but it's hanging too
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Sorry to hear that - you may end up having to rebuild this project from scratch.
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Gloria
The only reason I suggest Renaming is that sometimes people are uncomfortable about deleting a file. If you rename the file, you will have two CPDs but the XPJ will only look for the new one that will get created with the project name.
You say you don't find my instructions easy to follow. They are designed to work for several versions of RoboHelp and attempt to cover all scenarios. You said you are a visual person. I'm sorry but in a scenario like this you just have to sit down and methodically work through instructions such as those I have provided. It's an old fashioned approach but the design of the wheel is old fashioned but heck, it still works.
I don't think I have seen a situation where a project will not open from the HHP file. When you try that, you will get prompted as to whether the XPJ file should be used. You must click No to that. Is that what you are doing.
How big is that zipped back up of your project?
See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips
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Okay, I see part of my problem. There are duplicate project files
in different places: in c:\ My Robohelp Projects and c:\documents and settings\my documents\ My Robohelp Projects. Also, the xpj file was in the latter. So I moved it to c:\ My Robohelp Projects. In addition, I compared the list of documents in the two c: areas. I moved the xpj file to the c:\ My Robohelp Projects.
And there was a folder with the same name of my project within my project file, which is Callout Guide, so it was c:\ My Robohelp Projects\Callout Guide\Callout Guide. I inherited this project and did not want to make any changes at first since the project was generating and working, until yesterday. So with the duplicate folder, Callout Guide, I copied all the files from it into the first Callout Guide folder, which was c:\ My Robohelp Projects\Callout Guide.
If you're still following me, I believe I have all the files I need in the correct folder. So I opened the xpj file, which opened but is missing all the project files. I know the files are there but I need to point something in the right direction. And all the topics are x'd in red; when I try to search it can't find the file. Here are two screen shots:
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Hi there
Likely you are mistaken. Unless you (or someone) specifically took steps to create it, there would never be a C:\My RoboHelp Projects. What many believe is that RoboHelp creates a "My RoboHelp Projects" folder as a subfolder from C:\, when in fact it is normally found in someplace like:
C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserNameHere\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects
This is only one of the many reasons I recommend creating a simple "Projects" folder off the root of C and placing all your projects in subfolders of that.
Cheers... Rick
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Hi Rick,
Yes, I created the c:\My RoboHelp Projects. I did not create the other. But now I'm thinking when I transferred the files from the first author's desktop to mine, somehow the files were saved to c:\Documents and Settings\YourUserNameHere\My Documents\My RoboHelp Projects.
So I do have a path similar to the one your recommend: c:\My RoboHelp Projects.
Now I've removed the folder My RoboHelp Projects from the c:\Documents and Settings\YourUserNameHere\My Documents path. This folder contained some materials which were not RH project files or related to them, they were reference materials on RH.
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And once you've done that, you can repair all the broken links within your project.